The head of Adobe Systems has questioned Microsoft ’s committedness to hold back its new Silverlight platform compatible with other operating systems besides Windows .
Silverlight , which is encounter as Microsoft ’s challenger to Adobe ’s Flash data format , was unveiled Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters swop show in Las Vegas .
“ Microsoft , historically , has never demonstrated a commitment to conserve a hybrid platform solution , ” Bruce Chizen , chief executive officer of Adobe , said in an consultation Tuesday in Tokyo . He cited Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer as examples of Microsoft product that are still being develop for Windows but have been ended for the Mac platform .
Chizen was happy to paint a picture that Silverlight may abide the same destiny .
“ Even though they say Silverlight is go to be transversal - platform , and perchance the first [ interpretation ] will be , I ’m not certain our customers or the people that are trying to drive home that capacity will have the academic degree of confidence that if they go with Microsoft , they ’ll be able to provide them with a complete crabby - platform answer everlastingly , ” he said .
Flash has been around for 10 years and for much of its life was easily known as a platform for offbeat animation , but its use has burst recently along with the popularity of Web - base video sites like YouTube , which use Flash to birth streaming picture to users . It is quickly becoming the de facto standard for deliver streaming media over the Web , and with Silverlight Microsoft hopes to catch a piece of this moneymaking marketplace .
Adobe does n’t pause out taxation for Flash alone , but it sound out last month that ontogenesis of Flash server ware in its most recent quarter was more than enough to countervail a declination in sale of its core applications , which duck in front of the anticipated release of new rendering . It also credit the role of Flash in peregrine phones as the primary cause of a 59 percent leap in tax revenue at its mobile division during the same period .
With Flash tight expand as a picture deliverance chemical mechanism , Adobe used the same Las Vegas swap show to disclose its architectural plan to extend Flash Video from the Web to the background with a standalone guest , in core taking on Microsoft ’s Windows Media Player and other software program like Quicktime and Real Player .
“ We were missing a twosome of things , ” Chizen said , explain the principle for the app . “ There are many citizenry distributing video that would like to protect their video , in effect have DRM , and we enable DRM capability with the Adobe Media Player . to boot , people are look to monetize their TV through clever publicizing mechanisms and we ’re capable to do that with the Adobe Media Player . ”
The software , which is due out later on this yr , also builds on the popularity of social networking by allowing drug user to rank or comment on video directly from the software ’s port .
Despite his apparent confidence that Adobe ’s offering outdo those from Microsoft , Chizen is careful not to underestimate the world ’s biggest software society .
“ Microsoft is a $ 50 billion monopolist who ’s in the package business . I take them very seriously , ” he sound out .
This year Adobe is also planning to launch Apollo , a applied science that allows robust net program to hunt down offline . Chizen said he ’s excited about Apollo but disappointed that it has n’t been release yet .
In March , Adobe began offering an alpha version of the software , which has been downloaded 110,000 clip , he said . The full version of the political platform is due in the 2d one-half of this yr .
